130

Jake Peavy was masterly in mastering Justin Masterson and the Surprising Indians last night, tossing a three-hit, complete game, shut out. The erstwhile Cy Young Award winner struck out eight, walked none, and threw 78 of his 111 pitches for strikes in a brilliant display of control. Peavy reached 95 MPH with his fastball – or speedball, as Springsteen calls it in Glory Days. I’d love to ask Bruce why he used that word when fastball would have worked just fine, though who am I to question The Boss? But I digress.

Adam Dunn provided all the run support Peavy needed with a sacrifice fly that scored Juan Pierre in the first inning. Dunn, Pierre, and Brent Lillibridge each doubled, Omar Vizquel and A.J. Pierzynski singled, and that was it for the White Sox.

We just took a look at the Sox record when scratching out five hits in a game, so we won’t go there again so soon, but let’s look at how many games they win when scoring just one run. Not many. Over the last 92 years, the Good Guys have won 173 games by a 1-0 score, including 18 triumphs over the Tribe in that period. Six of their 173 wins have come since the 2005 season, including two against Cleveland. In games since 1919 where the Sox pitchers hold the opposition to just three hits, the team has a 345-47 record – 19-4 starting in 2006.  As you'd expect, giving up only three safeties is a pretty good sign you're going to win, although I would have guessed the chance of winning in that situation would be even higher

The win cut Cleveland’s lead to 9.0 games and the Magic Number to 130. The Sox are 7-3 in their last 10 games, which means that no team that doesn’t have Red in its name – Red Sox and Reds – has a better record than our boys over that period. They’ve already guaranteed they won’t lose this two-game series with the Indians. Now let’s go out and win it today. Go Sox!